IDFC FIRST EA₹N Review 2026: 0.5% Cashback on UPI, ₹0 Joining and ₹499 After
IDFC FIRST EA₹N has no joining fee and ₹499 from year two. It pays 0.5% cashback on UPI, utility, insurance and wallet loads. A RuPay card built for UPI. Full review and FAQs.
IDFC FIRST EA₹N is a RuPay card built around UPI, with no joining fee and a ₹499 annual fee from the second year.
It pays 0.5% cashback on UPI spends and on utility, insurance and wallet-load transactions.
IDFC FIRST EA₹N Credit Card Quick Overview
| **Card type** | Entry UPI cashback card |
|---|---|
| **Best for** | Someone whose everyday spending runs through UPI |
| **Joining / renewal fee** | Nil joining, ₹499 + GST renewal |
| **Network** | RuPay |
| **Base reward rate** | **0.5%** |
| **Reward currency** | Cashback, valued at ₹1 each |
| **Lounge access** | None published |
| **Forex markup** | 0.0% |
Reward Structure: How You Earn
EA₹N pays cashback credited against the statement, so IDFC's ₹99 redemption fee and ₹0.25 point rate do not apply.
0.5% cashback on UPI spends, and on utility, insurance and wallet loads.
| Spend | Effective rate |
|---|---|
| Everything else | 0.5% |
| Fuel, rent, wallet loads, government, gaming | **0%** |
Why it is RuPay-only
Credit cards can be linked to UPI in India only on the RuPay network. Issuing on RuPay is what makes this card's core function possible rather than a limitation IDFC chose.
Utilities and insurance earn here
Worth noting against the rest of IDFC's range, where utilities and insurance sit at a 1X floor worth 0.13% to 0.17%. On EA₹N they earn the full 0.5% cashback rate.
IDFC publishes no cashback ceiling for this card in the material reviewed here — unknown rather than uncapped.
Two rules changed on 18 June 2026, and both cut value
1. Reward Points now expire. Points earned from the July 2026 statement cycle are valid for 24 months from the date they are credited. IDFC's older marketing says points 'never expire' and several of its pages still carry that claim — it is out of date.
2. Points are earned only on spends up to your credit limit in a billing cycle. Spend beyond your limit in the same cycle and that spending earns nothing.
The second rule is unusual, and this dataset has not seen it at any other Indian issuer. It bites hardest on someone with a modest limit who pays down mid-cycle and spends again — precisely the behaviour that lets a cardholder transact more than their limit in a month.
Zero forex markup, across the whole range
IDFC FIRST charges no foreign currency markup. Not on a premium tier — across the range. The card pages carry the banner 'All IDFC FIRST Bank Credit Cards now come with Zero Forex Markup', and the MITC's charges table records NIL for foreign currency transactions and for dynamic and static currency conversion alike.
Set against the 3.5% most Indian issuers charge, that is ₹3,500 saved on every ₹1,00,000 spent abroad. The only exception in IDFC's range is the Micro Enterprise Credit Card, at 2%.
Cash withdrawals are interest-free for 45 days
This is worth stating plainly because almost nobody else does it. IDFC charges a flat ₹199 + GST per cash withdrawal and 0% interest for up to 45 days.
Almost every other issuer in this dataset charges 2.5% of the amount with a ₹500 floor and accrues interest from the withdrawal date with no grace period. On a ₹20,000 withdrawal repaid within the grace window, IDFC costs ₹199 where a typical competitor costs about ₹500 plus a month's interest.
What this review cannot tell you about charges
IDFC's MITC is a scanned image. The document runs to 30 pages and 29 of them contain no extractable text at all. Only page 4, the charges table, could be read.
That page does give the redemption fee, the card replacement schedule, and nil entries for branch cash payments, outstation cheques, duplicate statements and charge slips. The APR range, the zero-forex position and the cash withdrawal terms come from summary text IDFC quotes on its card pages.
Still unknown: the late payment charge amount, the over-limit charge, the minimum amount due formula and the interest-free period. Those are absent from the readable sources — not zero.
The interest rate is a range, not a rate. IDFC publishes 'From 8.5% - 46.2% per annum' and sets it per customer. The bottom of that range is among the lowest credit card APRs in India; the top is higher than most issuers' flat rate. Which one you get is not predictable.
Category Restrictions: Where You Won't Earn
- Where you earn nothing: Fuel and cash withdrawals earn no Reward Points.
- Point expiry: 24 months from the date the points are credited, for points earned from the July 2026 statement cycle onwards — a rule introduced on 18 June 2026. IDFC's older marketing says points never expire and several pages in this corpus still carry that claim; it is stale.
Fees and Charges
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Joining fee | Nil |
| Renewal fee | ₹499 + GST |
| Finance charges | Set per customer within an APR range of 8.5% to 46.2% per annum, per IDFC's MITC summary. That is roughly 0.71% to 3.85% a month. IDFC prices this card dynamically rather than applying one rate to all holders. |
| Cash advance fee | ₹199 + GST per transaction, flat — not a percentage of the amount withdrawn. |
| Cash advance interest | 0% for up to 45 days. IDFC does not accrue interest on cash withdrawals during the interest-free window, which almost no other issuer in this dataset offers — most charge interest from the withdrawal date. |
| Forex markup | Nil. IDFC FIRST applies zero markup on foreign currency transactions and on dynamic and static currency conversion transactions, across the range. The Micro Enterprise Credit Card is the exception at 2%. |
| Dynamic currency conversion | Nil — the MITC's charges table covers dynamic and static currency conversion under the same nil markup entry as foreign currency transactions. |
| Late payment | Applicable on the Total Amount Due. THE AMOUNT IS NOT READABLE — it sits in the scanned portion of IDFC's MITC. Not published in the sources read, never zero. |
| Card replacement | ₹199 for all credit cards including image-personalised cards, with four exceptions: Ashva Metal ₹1,500, Mayura Metal ₹3,500, Gaj ₹4,000 and FIRST Private ₹4,000. The FIRST Digital RuPay card is nil. |
| Reward redemption | ₹99 per redemption transaction — 396 Reward Points at the ₹0.25 rate. |
| EMI processing | Processing fees, interest, foreclosure fee and pro-rata interest on instalment products are communicated at the time of the transaction or conversion rather than published in advance. A one-time Pre-EMI interest is also charged for the days between disbursal or conversion and the first statement. |
| GST | 18% on all fees and charges. |
Is the IDFC FIRST EA₹N Credit Card Worth It?
0.5% is low in absolute terms, and the ₹499 annual fee from year two needs ₹99,800 of qualifying spend just to cover itself.
The first year is genuinely free, so the card costs nothing to try.
Compare against Hello Cashback, which pays 1% but only through IDFC's own app, and costs ₹1,000 waived at ₹2 lakh.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the fee on the IDFC FIRST EA₹N Credit Card? No joining fee, and ₹499 plus GST annually from the second year onwards.
What is an IDFC FIRST Reward Point worth? ₹0.25 for gift vouchers and products, which IDFC publishes on every card page. Four cards redeem better on travel booked inside the IDFC FIRST Bank app — FIRST Private at ₹1.00, Mayura and FIRST WOW! Black at ₹0.50, and Ashva at ₹0.40.
Do IDFC FIRST reward points expire? Yes, since 18 June 2026. Points earned from the July 2026 statement cycle are valid for 24 months from the date they are credited. IDFC's older marketing describing points as never expiring is out of date.
What is the forex markup on IDFC FIRST credit cards? Zero, across the range. The only exception is the Micro Enterprise Credit Card at 2%.
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